Rozalia Galiyeva

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Olympic medal record
Women’s Artistic Gymnastics
Gold	1992 Barcelona	Team competition
Silver	1996 Atlanta	Team competition

Rozaliya Il'fovna Galiyeva or Roza Galieva (Russian: Розалия Ильфовна Галиева) (born April 28, 1977 in Olmaliq, Uzbek SSR) is a Russian gymnast who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Galieva was born on April 26, 1977 in Olmaliq, Uzbekistan. She began competing internationally for the USSR in 1991, sharing in the team gold medal at the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis. A solid gymnast but never a star, Galieva was a strong support to the Soviet team.

Galieva competed with the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. She exceeded expectations in the preliminary competition, finishing 8th and qualifying for the individual all-around final behind teammates Svetlana Boguinskaya and Tatiana Lysenko.

However, before the all-around, coach Alexander Alexandrov pulled Galieva from the competition, citing a knee injury. Her replacement was teammate Tatyana Gutsu. Although Gutsu had fallen from the balance beam in the team finals, she was the reigning European all-around champion and a Worlds medalist on vault and bars. It was later revealed that Galieva's injury was nonexistent, and that the substitution was made because Gutsu was considered to have better medal-winning potential. Indeed, Gutsu emerged from the Olympic all-around as the gold medalist. While Gutsu split her prize money with Galieva, Galieva always remained angry about this turn of events.

After the 1992 Olympics, Galieva continued competing for Uzbekistan. An ethnic Russian whose family had been exiled by Stalin, she successfully applied for Russian citizenship in 1995 and began competing for the Russian team. Her first major meet for Russia was the European Championships in 1996 where she won gold on balance beam, beating such renowned gymnasts as Gina Gogean and former teammate Svetlana Boguinskaya, who was now competing for Belarus.

As the only returning Olympian, Galieva was named team captain of the Russian squad at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. However, these Olympics would also prove to be less than positive for her. The Russian squad was bitterly disappointed in the team finals, where they finished second to the USA after leading for the first half of the competition. Galieva, along with other gymnasts such as Lavinia Miloşovici and Svetlana Khorkina, was severely distracted by the rowdy crowd. In the team finals Galieva found herself in the unenviable position of competing just after Kerri Strug vaulted; the crowd watched her with more attention than they had her teammates but really, the spotlight was very firmly elsewhere. The situation was repeated in the all-around finals, when Galieva performed on floor while Shannon Miller was on beam and could not hear her music over the crowd noise. Individually, she finished in the top 10 in the All-Around competition, fulfilling her goal to compete, but again she was disappointed. A beam medal was a possibility (Roza's team optionals and all-around beam scores would have been enough to tie her for first and second respectively). But she fell in the finals and finished in seventh place.

After Atlanta, Galieva participated in exhibition tours and competitions in the United States. Her last major competition was the World University Games in 1997. After retiring, she performed in an ice skating show, Moscow Circus on Ice, and judged gymnastics competitions in Russia. She is now married and, with husband Mischa, has one son, Nikita, and one daughter, Tatyana.

[edit] Major results

• 1997 World University Games: 1st team; 2nd BB
• 1996 Olympic Games: 2nd team; 4th VT; 7th AA; 7th BB
• 1996 World Championships: 6th FX
• 1996 European Championships: 1st BB; 2nd team; 5th VT
• 1995 Olympic Test Event: 1st FX; 2nd AA; 2nd UB; 6th VT
• 1993 World Championships: 6th AA
• 1992 Olympic Games: 1st team
• 1992 World Championships: 2nd UB; 3rd BB; 4th FX (all prelims)
• 1992 Moscow World Stars: 1st BB; 2nd FX; 4th AA
• 1991 World Championships: 1st team
• 1991 Moscow World Stars: 5th AA; 8th UB
• 1991 USSR Nationals: 4th AA

[edit] External links

• Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique profile for Rozalia Galiyeva
• Rozalia's Republik, an unofficial web resource on Galieva
• Complete List of Competition Results at Gymn Forum
• International Gymnast Interview with Tatiana Gutsu (discusses 1992 Olympics substiution)